DNR officials agree to rural water study

There may be a permanent solution to the ongoing drinking water issues at the Blue Mounds State Park.
That’s according to a pending agreement between Minnesota DNR and local officials at the Nov. 17 Rock County Board meeting.
Under the agreement, a study will be conducted to determine the feasibility of connecting the park to the county’s rural water system in the future.
Specifics of the joint powers agreement and the project’s timeline will be determined at a later date.
In October, during the initial meeting between DNR and county officials, the DNR agreed to a feasibility study by DGR Engineering out of Rock Rapids, Iowa. Cost of the study is $8,732.
Kathy Dummer, DNR’s southern regional park and trail manager, attended the Nov. 17 and October meetings. She presented the idea of a limited duration joint powers agreement used frequently in the DNR trails department.
Dummer said the agreement will allow engineers familiar with the rural water system to complete the feasibility instead of bringing in an outside engineer. The joint powers agreement will also streamline DNR’s payment of the study.
“The DNR would basically transfer funds to pay the county for the contract with the engineering company,” she said.
DGR is familiar with the Rock County Rural Water System, having recently engineered the local system’s $5 million expansion and upgrade project.
For the past two years state park officials have been working with the Minnesota Department of Health to find the source and eliminate a fecal coliform contamination within the park’s drinking water system.
A new deeper well installed in November 2014 was thought to be the solution, but quarterly tests continue to be positive for E. coli at different times and at different locations after the water system was treated.
“We are bound and determined to isolate where the problem is,” Dummer said. “Our last effort is underway. … For us it is about determining whether we can use that well for anything even if it’s just for the bison operation or cleaning of equipment.”